Category: ace

a story of help desking via skype

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning

Christine rang me on the phone, “michael i’ve done something to the (PRACE) web site.” She went on to describe how she’d lost her work and one of the pages had somehow reverted to an earlier version with last year’s brochure. i have to admit i’m terrible at providing help desk assistance over the phone. i really need the visuals, because often i can’t make sense of the way people describe their screen. Maybe it’s my weak listening skills.. maybe it’s because people leave out important details. I think that Read More …

How to embed documents in your blog (eg blogger)

Michael Chalk2 Commentsace, how to

Several people on the CAE 23 Things project wanted to know how to embed documents in their blog. There are a few ways. (edublogs allows you to upload documents, but i’m not sure that blogger does. And David made the point that if he’s uploading all the time, he’ll use his storage quota in no time.) The trick is to use an external service, eg Slideshare, iScribd, youtube, docstocs, yudu or google docs (your choice could depend on the kind of document). sign up to another web service (eg scribd, Read More …

PageTurners, series 4 out now!

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy

Very exciting news! PageTurners series 4 has arrived. Anne Dunn, Chris Malakar and Moira Hanrahan have done it again, produced a delightful collection of funny and engaging stories for beginning adult readers all around the world. pageturners.prace.vic.edu.au My personal favourite stories in the new series 4 are: Can you read this? – about a woman returning to learning, Tooth Fairy – about a woman in a retirement home who loves to be helpful, and Red Dog – a true story about a wandering dog in Western Australia. The fun part Read More …

"Skills" Victoria – one bite of the cherry thanks!

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace

Certificate of General Education for Adults (CGEA) level 3 is considered “foundation level training”, under the new regime. However, Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) Intermediate is considered “Skills Creation”, and comes under a different set of funding criteria. The fact that i’m struggling with here is that intermediate VCAL is based on CGEA level 3. In many respects they are the same. If you already have a Certificate 2 in Anything, the Victorian government will fund your study of the CGEA 3.. but they will not fund you to Read More …

Get student feedback with google forms

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, classroom, e-learning

For the first stage of our project evaluation (the “flexivet” project for flexible delivery in ACE), we had paper-based evaluation forms. This was fine.. until i realised it meant i would be the one to input the data into a spreadsheet. Yawn. So i’ve set up a form at google docs.. which inputs directly into the spreadsheet. We’ve embedded the form on the student wiki, and linked to it from all over the place. Delightful! Just a couple of problems.. 1) Several students don’t realise they haven’t fully completed the Read More …

New bloggers on the 23 things project

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

As well as Ancy and Soheir from PRACE, and Megan from Thornbury.. we now have Trish from Thornbury and Deb from Employment Focus joining us on this adventure. What about going to visit their site.. and offer them support with a comment? Oh go on, do! thanks and kind regards, michael Remember all the course learning materials are online at the 23 Things site. image and photo credits: licensed under creative commons at flickr: Thanks very much: pyjama.

Coming to grips with "Latest Headlines" (aka RSS)

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, how to

There’s so much to read on the web.. you might want to keep in touch with several sites at once. for example i like to follow the news headlines from The Age, and my favourite radio shows on the ABC. You could visit each site individually.. or you could use an “RSS reader” to keep in touch with the latest updates. Rss readers are becoming increasingly popular. google has a good reader.. which you have access to if you’ve signed up for blogger dot com or any other google service. Read More …